SEYMOUR B. MURDOCK.

      "I was born in Dutchess County, N.Y., April 8th, 1796. My father, Seymour Murdock, emigrated to Orleans County in 1810, when I was fourteen years of age, and located on a part of the farm now owned and occupied by me on the Ridge, in Ridgeway. In the transit from Dutchess County, we had a hard time, traveling with an ox team, with a family of twelve persons."

     "We were a little over a month on the way, and reached out place of destination June 1st, 1810, and dwelt in our wagons nearly six weeks, and until we had time to erect a house in which we could reside. From the Genesee River to Clarkson Corners was one dense wilderness, with only an occasional commencement of clearing made by a few settlers. At Clarkson was a log tavern at which we stopped. From Clarkson to our first stopping place there was then, I think, but three houses, and they were cheaply erected log cabins. We were two days in journeying from Clarkson to Ridgeway. The roads, if roads they could properly be called, were almost impassable.

     "At the crossing of Otter Creek, in Gaines, fire had consumed the logs, which had been thrown into the bank to form a sort of dugway up the ascent from the stream, which left an almost perpendicular ascent for us to rise. To accomplish this, we took off our oxen and drove them up the old road, and then with teams on the hill, and chains extending from them to the tongues of the wagon below, we drew our wagon up. In doing this, at one time the draft appeared too much for the team, the oxen fell and were drawn back by the load, and the horn of one of the oxen catching under a root, was torn entirely off."

     "The next difficulty we encountered was at a slashing about two miles east of Oak Orchard Creek, where a man by the name of Sibley had cut down timber along the track, and just then had set it on fire, which rendered our path both difficult and dangerous, as we were obliged to go through the midst of fire. The next difficulty was at Oak Orchard Creek. A dugway had been made down the bank only to accommodate the Yankee wagons, and ours being a Pennsylvania wagon, with longer axle, it was seriously endangered by its liability to be thrown down the bank. On ascending the bank out of the creek on the west side, one of my brothers, then a little fellow, fell off the wagon and might have been left if he had not screamed lustily for help."

     "On arriving at our journey's end, our first business was to eat from the stock of prepared provision we brought with us. The food was laid out in order around a large stump which stood conveniently by, and I well remember the relish with which we all partook of this our first meal, at our new home in the woods. The scenery here, as I now remember it, was truly magnificent, one dense forest, composed of large, sturdy oaks, extended as far as the eye could see, east and west, and on the south side of the Ridge Road. 

     "On the north side the forest was more dense, and composed of a greater variety of timber. The nearest opening east of us, was the one alluded to above, where we encountered the fire, two miles east of Oak Orchard Creek. The nearest one west was at Johnson's Creek, although Mr. Dunn had erected the body of a log house, but had made no clearing at the place on which he has since resided, two miles east from Johnson's Creek."

     "At Johnson's Creek, which was about five miles west form our then home, there was one log house built, and a small clearing. This was our nearest neighbor, as north of us was an unbroken forest extending to Lake Ontario, with no mark of human habitation west of Oak Orchard Creek. At the head of Stillwater, in Carlton, lived a widow Brown, and I have heard of residents at the mouth of Johnson's Creek, but of this we knew nothing then. South of us were no families, so far as we knew, except two families by the name of Coon, who I think came in the same season we did, and one family by the name of Walsworth, residing near Tonawanda Swamp, which was our only stopping place between our place and Batavia, on this side the swamp."

     "We had no necessity then for the law we now have called the "cattle law." The store nearest to us then was at Batavia, thirty miles distant. Our nearest post office was also at Batavia, and there also was the nearest church, and so far as I know, that was the nearest place to us where religious meetings were held. There was also the nearest school house know to me, unless there was one at what is called Slater's Settlement, near Lockport. The nearest gristmill was at Niagara Falls, forty miles distant. The health of our family continued good during the first year, and yet the season was so far advanced before we could be prepared to put in seed, that we raised northing the first year except some potatoes and a few turnips."

     "I remember a man called at our house that summer, and knowing the family he kindly offered to make my mother a garden gate, there being then no fence around the garden, or within five miles of it. The general health of our family, and of those who became our neighbors, continued good, with trifling exceptions in the form of ague and fevers, etc., until after the war of 1812.  During this war much suffering prevailed, as no provisions had been laid by, and the war necessarily took the time of many who would have otherwise been raising all necessary food, thus ceasing to be produces, and yet remaining consumers. This produced a great dearth of provisions, and much suffering, consequently in some instances whole families left the county, some on foot; in some instances women went away carrying their children in their arms, in hopes of reaching a land of plenty and safety."

     "At the taking of Fort Niagara, I and most of our family, and our neighbors of sufficient age and size to bear arms, went to the defence of our country. During our absence a band of Tuscarora Indians on a retreat passed through our neighborhood and greatly frightened our women and children before they could be made to understand that they Indians were our friends. Up to this time the settlers were sparse and illy prepared to encounter the horrors of war in our midst, and were in constant preparation for immediate flight."

     "The hardships and privations and sufferings of our people consequent upon the war, were speedily followed by fearful sickness.  About this time emigrants coming to this region were man and frequent, and as the population increased so the sickness increased. Great and almost universal suffering among the inhabitants followed. If any were so fortunate as to escape sickness themselves, their physical abilities were overtaxed with care of those who were sick, and still the improvement of the county continued; perfect harmony abounded among the people, and contentment, founded on hope, was universal."

     "On June 1st, 1825, just fifteen years after dining off that stump above referred to, I was married to Miss Eliza Reed, of Cayuga County, N.Y., and we took up our residence within a stones throw of the log hut first erected by my father. I have resided on the place ever since, and am happy and contented in the realization of the hopes entertained when a boy fighting musketoes and felling trees in the then wilderness, where is now a good flourishing neighborhood of inhabitants. SEYMOUR B. MURDOCK." Ridgeway, June, 1864.

On his father, Seymour Murdock, brother of Zerah:

SEYMOUR MURDOCK

     "Seymour Murdock was born in Dutchess County, N.Y., in 1764. He married Catharine Buck of Amenia. She was born in 1768. They moved from Greene County to Ridgeway in 1810, and located on the Ridge Road, about five miles east of Johnson's Creek. At that time there was no settler between Mr. Murdock's settlement and Lake Ontario on the north; none south to the swamp but Coon and Walsworth in Shelby, and east and west on the Ridge it was several miles to any neighbors. The nearest postoffice, store or church, was at Batavia, thirty miles distant. The nearest gristmill was at Niagara Falls, forty miles distant. Mr. Murdock was one of the first settlers on the Ridge, in Ridgeway. He had eight sons and four daughters. His sons names were Israel, John, Seymour B., Henry, Zimri, Jasper, Hiram, and William. Israel kept public house some fifteen years on the Ridge Road. He was one of the best business men in town. He died in 1831. John died in Gaines, September 19th, 1866. Mr. Seymour Murdock died April 14th, 1833. His wife died September 7th, 1823."